Teaching mathematics in the context of curriculum change

Abstract

This paper examines the practices of two Grade 10 mathematics teachers as they implemented the new FET curriculum. As we analysed their practices we found that current descriptions of reform and traditional practices were inadequate to describe the similarities and differences between them. We therefore developed a set of elaborated categories, which distinguish reform‐oriented from traditionally‐oriented practices. We use these categories to analyse the two teachers’ practices and we use the teachers’ practices to illuminate the categories. We show that although some of the teachers’ practices may seem similar on the surface, in fact one teacher employed these in a more strongly reform‐oriented way than the other.